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PARMA - Call it "My Fair Lady' in reverse.
"Me and My Girl' shares enough similarities with Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loew's classic to make you "see' Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins, even though they're not on-stage. This time, the transformer/etiquette teacher is a woman and the target is a man.

When I first read George Orwell's novel "1984," I was in high school and 1984 was a date in the future. Now it is past. Students still read that book, and we discuss which of Orwell's pessimistic predictions have come to pass.
One thing that always bothered me about 1984 was not the fact that the government Big Brother controlled everything, but the fact that people had let it happen. I didn't think it was realistic that people would allow the government to install video equipment in every home, giving Big Brother access to their private lives. Why would people voluntarily do that? It didn't make sense, and so I thought it could never happen. And, so far, it hasn't.
But now I know how it could. Big Brother didn't have to force people to allow the technology into their homes to permit the government to spy on them; people did it voluntarily. In fact, we are voluntarily doing it now, and it scares me. Not that Obama is using it to spy on us I don't believe so, at least not yet. But the miraculous gadgets that we purchase with glee are the conduits the government could easily use to monitor us and we've paid for them and installed them ourselves.
For example, my daughter in the next room is on Skype, happily videochatting with her boyfriend in Ecuador. He sees her, because her laptop computer has a camera installed. And when she was in Ecuador, I was joyful whenever the Internet was working and I could see her and she could see me. But that videocam is a portal into the privacy of my home, and even though now I control who views me through that portal, the fact that it exists lays the groundwork for Big Brother.

The Salvation Army Summer Youth Feeding program will end Aug. 21.
The program averaged 100 children fed per day. The Army appreciates all of the volunteers who helped this summer and all of the businesses that donated to the program.

Norwalk City Schools spent &#036;7,764 per student in 2008.
With comparable districts spending an average of &#036;8,642 per pupil and the state average being &#036;9,939, Superintendent Dennis Doughty considers Norwalk good stewards of the district's money. Doughty shared the information from an Ohio Department of Education (ODE) staffing analysis, which was completed July 24, with the school board during its meeting Tuesday.

A honking complaint turned into a short police pursuit.
The Norwalk Police Department received a complaint at 8:23 a.m. Tuesday of a vehicle stopped in the road with the driver honking her horn, Detective Sgt. Jim Fulton said in his report. The driver, Susan Weakland, 46, of 110 Concord Court, was stopped in front of houses on Cedar and Corwin streets, where Fulton said she was accused of yelling and honking the horn.

sseitz@norwalkreflector.com
Lifetime Norwalk resident Jim Loughton is ready to take the next step.
Always interested in city government, Loughton has thrown his hat into the ring in the Norwalk city council first-ward race.
He will face Republican incumbent Scott Krichbaum.

"We like the health insurance we have and don't want the government messing with it."
That's the refrain one hears frequently these days on TV newscasts of people some of whom have Medicare or veterans' health insurance, if you can believe that shouting down congressmen at town hall meetings.

Amidst a rash of reports of vehicle entries, the Norwalk Police Department is reminding residents to secure their vehicles and not leave their valuables inside.
"Culprits are stealing loose change, electronic items and anything of value out of unlocked vehicles," Capt. Dave Light said. "Most of the entries are taking place during the night in neighborhoods in every area of the city. Some thefts are occurring in shopping center parking lots."

sseitz@norwalkreflector.com
The North Coast Inland Trail has come a long way.
With the help of a load of volunteers, working under the umbrella of Firelands Rails to Trails, the group has cleared several miles of trails from Norwalk to Monroeville to Bellevue and another small stretch in the Collins area.
And now's no time to slow down.

BELLEVUE - The city's school district has received a state and federal stimulus package that essentially provides &#036;21 million to build new school facilities.
"The economic impact in Bellevue in terms of jobs, local investment, protecting property values and retail activity is huge," said school board president Dr. Ted Clark. "What we can do for our children with this money is overwhelming."

The Cleveland Browns today announced the training camp schedule for August 17-23.
The Browns will announce the practice schedule each Wednesday for the following week. Gates open one hour prior to the start of each practice session. Training camp will be open to the public through the week beginning Monday, August 24.

Northeast Ohio gas prices took a sharp jump upward this week. The average price for a gallon of regular, unleaded gasoline increased 12.8 cents per gallon to &#036;2.614 at the pump.
According to the AAA Fuel Gauge, oil prices held steady most of the day to open the week's trading down a little more than 30 cents closing at &#036;70.60 Monday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Monday's steady opening stands in stark contrast to last week's mini-price rollercoaster which saw market oil reach a five week high near &#036;73 per barrel during trading before settling closer to &#036;70 at the close.

NEW LONDON - Village council authorized Administrator Shawn Tappel Monday to submit an application for an Issue 2 grant to help pay for the Prospect Street bridge project.
The move came during Monday's council meeting.

SANDUSKY - An informational meeting discussing the USDA program ACRE will take place at 6:30 p.m. today in the Farm Service Agency tent by the heritage barn at the Erie County Fair.
The deadline to sign up for the ACRE program is Friday.